Utility Regulators Bid Goodbye
To Coziness With Phone Industry

ATLANTA -- Gearing up to open the state's phone business to greater competition, the Georgia Public Service Commission took a new approach when hiring an executive director.

The agency in the past tended to fill that slot with political appointees, but decided it needed a "professional" with substantial regulatory know-how, says PSC Commissioner Stan Wise. So the agency recently hired Deborah Flanagan, a 14-year-veteran...